Two teams from the United States Air Force Academy won first place awards in the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Region V competition last month.

Senior cadets Joshua Castagnetta and Robert Larson won first place in the undergraduate category for their research into creating an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of conducting zero-gravity experiments.

An Air Force Academy team bested the other two service academies in the first competition to design the most innovative project to address warfighter challenges.

Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research-driven competition featured three teams each from USAFA, the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy.

USAFA Research offers cutting-edge research opportunities to USAF Academy cadets and to Air Force organizations such as AFRL, the Department of Defense, and to private corporations such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.